Arrangement of rails for railway-guns



P. KRIIGER.

ARRANGEMENT 0F RAILS FOR RAILWAY GUNS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT-4 I920.

1361 472, A Patented Dec. 7, 1920.

UNITED STAT rA'reNr QFFlQE,

PAUL KRI lG-ER, OF ESSEN', GERMANY, ASSIGNOB. 'IO FRIED. KRUPP AKTIENGESELL- ARRANGEMENT O33 RAILS FOR RAILWAY-GUNS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 7, 1920.

Application filed September 4, 1920. Serial No. 408,388.

T 0 all whom it may con cern Be it known that 1, PAUL Knr'ionn, residing at Essen, Germany, a citizen of the German Republic, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Arrangement of Rails for Railway-Guns, of which the following is a specification.

The invention refers to a railway and gun carriage arrangement, which permits of the lateral training of the gun carriage by traversing the gun carriage on the rails. The object of the invention is, to provide an arrangement of rails of this kind, which permits a lateral training field up to 360, takes up little room and can therefore be comparatively easily hidden from aviators.

The invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show in Figure 1 a side view of one form of a railway gun in the firing position, intended to be fired on the new arrangement of rails.

Fig. 2 is a view from above of the arrangement of rails with the gun in a firing position;

Fig. 3 is a detail view showing a part of the gun in cross section, and

Figs. 4l'7 show diagrammatically the positions of gun carriages of different lengths mounted on the new arrangement of rails.

Referring to Figs. 1% the arrangement of rails comprises a circular line of rails A (Figs. 2 and a) with rails a leading theretoat a tangent. In the center of the space inclosed by the circular line of rails is a platform B (Fig. 2), connected with the circular line of rails A by stays 6 The gun intended for use on the arrangement of rails is provided with a railway gun carriage, the gun mounting C of which is supported at (Z and 6 (Figs. 1 and 2) by two sets of bogies D, E. Each set of bogies is composed of a large number of bogies (Z and 6' with the necessary connecting bridges, in order to obtain as great a curving movement as possible, that is to say, to travel on circular rails of as small a diameter as possible. The trunnions provided at (Z and e for the sets of bogies are constructed as ball trunnions. The ball trunnion F (Fig. 3) for the back set of bogies E is formed with a plate F which slides in channel guides 0 fixed to a slide 0 on the gun carriage G. The trunnion F rests in a socket e mounted on the sets of bogies block. A clamp (not shown on the drawing) is inserted between the slide 0 and the plate F to securely fix the sets of bogies to the gun carriage C.

The cradle G carrying the gun barrel G is attached to the gun mounting C by means of horizontal trunnions g (Fig. 1). Between the two sets of bogies D, E there is arranged a carriage H, intended to support the gun carriage C when the gun is fired. hen traveling, the carriage H is coupled to the front set of bogies D, for example, by means of a connecting rod [L1, and a space is allowed between the parts of the gun carriage C and the carriage H, which merely come in contact when the gun is fired, so that normally the carriage H runs free. A driving car J (Fig. 2) which serves to traverse the gun carriage on the arrangement of rails can be coupled by connecting rods 2' to the sets of bogies.

The gun carriage is moved backward on to the arrangement of rails, and for this purpose the driving car J is attached in front of the back set of bogies E, the connection of the supporting carriage H with the front set of bogies being released and the carriage H lifted ofi the rails by winches and suspended from the body G. hen mounting the gun on the circular rails A the gun carriage C swings with respect to the set of bogies D, E around the main axes of rotation (Z 6 After the bogies have all been mounted on the circular rails A, the driving car J is then also coupled to the front set.

The gun carriage can then be readily moved to any lateral position on the circular rails.

The diameter of the circular rails A is so chosen in regard to the length of the gun carriage C, measured between the axes of rotation (Z (1 of the sets of bogies, that the axes (Z 6 lie on a diameter of the circular rails when the gun carriage has been completely mounted on them. The sets of bogies D, E will then lie transversely to the gun carriage G and the supporting carriage H suspended from the gun carriage C will be situated over the platform B and it is let down on to this platform before the gun is fired. Finally those parts of the gun carriage C and the carriage H destined to come in contact when, the gun is fired are so adjusted that on firing the gun after a certain declension of the body G, it will be supported by the carriage H.

When moving the gun carriage on the circular rails the clamp between the p rts 0 F is removed in order that the back set of bogies E can move with respect to the gun carriage C and hence adjust itself with respect to the front of bogies D, should the circular rails deviate from the exact circular shape.

The arrangement of rails above described is distinguished first by the fact that it takes up far less space than the tracks with a large curve radius used up to the present,

the laying of which often presents difliculty in some localities owing to their length. The new arrangement has also the advantage of great simplicity over turntables or revolving platforms, since, when traversing the gun carriage on the circular rails the railway gun carriage serves as a turntable bridge for the gun barrel, and therefore a separate turntable bridge or revolving platform on which the gun carriage C is mounted, is unnecessary. A further advantage of the arrangement consists in the fact that the sets of bogies lie transversely to the gun carriage and do not recoil. It is, therefore, not necessary to bring the gun carriage for ward into a firing position after every shot. Further the transverse position of the back set of bogies E provides room for the gun barrel, when firing at an elevation, recoiling after the shot, whereas the gun barrel would strike the bogies if they were in the traveling position (see the position of recoil of the gun barrel indicated by dotted lines in Figs. 1-2).

Further a pivot could be provided in the platform in the center of the circular rails and the carriage H then omitted with which pivot the body of the gun carriage mounted on the circular rails could be connected. Further, the mechanism for driving the gun carriage on to the circular rails could be arranged on one or more of the bogies of the railway gun carriage instead of in a separate driving car.

If necessary gun carriages of different lengths can be fired from the circular set of rails. The diameter of the circular set of rails would correspond to that illustrated in Figs. 2 and 4. For instance, Fig. 5 shows the position of a gun on the circular rails A, the carriage C of which is about half the length ofthe gun carriage C shown in Fig. 4%. In this case the one set of bogies (E) rests on the circular rails A, whereas the axis of rotation (Z of the other set of bogies D lies over the center of the circle, through which one of the two approach rails a runs. A gun with a carriage C of greater length, with one set of bogies (D) on the approach rails a and the other set of bogies (E) on the circulars rails A, is shown in Fig. 6. Finally, Fig. 7 shows how a gun,

the carriage of which C has a smaller length than the carriage G in Fig. 4, may be mounted upon the circular rails A in such a way, that both sets of bogies D, E rest on the circular rails and the axes of rotation (Z 6 lie on a chord of the circle.

Claims.

1. A device of the class described comprising a railway track circularly arranged, a railway gun carriage, which comprises a gun mount and a multiplicity of bogies arranged in sets, the gun being trained by the disposition of the sets of bogies with respect to the railway track, said sets of bogies be ing disposed at variable distances from one another.

2. In a device of the class described comprising a railway track circularly arranged, a railway gun carriage which comprises a gun mount and a multiplicity of bogies arranged in sets, means for supporting the gun mount on the sets of bogies at points on the diameter of the circular track, substantially as described.

3. A structure of the class set forth which comprises a circularly arranged railway track, a railway gun carriage comprising two sets of bogies, a gun mount and means for pivotally supporting each end of the mount upon a set of bogies and means for centrally supporting the mount, substantially as described.

4. A railway gun mount comprising a railway track circularly arranged, a gun carriage comprising two sets of multi-numbered bogies, a gun mount pivotally supported by the sets of bogies, a gun supported by said gun mount, means for driving said bogies when in traveling position and. also on the circular rails and a center supporting means for the gun adapted to be connected to one set of bogies during traveling position, substantially as described.

5. A railway gun mount comprising a circularly arranged railway track, two sets of bogies arranged to travel on said circular track, a gun mount pivotally supported on the sets of bogies, a gun positioned on said mount and means whereby the parts of the pivotal connection between the gun mount and one set of bogies may be moved relatively so that an adjustmentbetween the position of the two sets of bogies may be allowed for to compensate for deviations in the shape of a circular railway track, substantially as described.

The foregoing specification signed at Essen, Germany, this 15th day of June,

v PAUL-KRUGER. In presence of- HANS Go'r'rsMANN, J OSEF OLBERTZ. 

